Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

About a week ago, I planted the hops rhizomes I ordered.  I had gotten 6 Nugget rhizomes and 6 Cascades from a gal who raises hops, approx. 40 miles south of the farm.  Needless to say, I was excited when I got them and I was excited when it came to plant them.

I did as much research on hops as I could.  The repeating nugget of information was that hops are easy to grow.  And when planting, put one or two rhizomes in each hill.  I was happy that the gal I ordered the hops from, packaged extra slips/rhizomes in each bag.  Some of the rhizome looked weak.  Those were the ones I planted with another.  It worked out.

Today, I am very happy to announce… all hills of rhizome are showing signs of growth.  There are little shoots pushing through the soil.

Cascade Hops Plant

This little guy is nearly 5″ tall – the tallest of all our new hops sprouts.  The others are ranging in size from ½” to 2″.

The Nugget hops started growing within the first 3 days of planting.  I was worried about the Cascade variety.   But after 2 days of heavy rains, totaling nearly 3″ of precipitation, they all but jumped out of the soil.  All 12 hills (6 of each) are showing sprouts.  Soon, I will need to refer to these little plants as bines.  Bines are the name folks give to hop vines.

Speaking of weather, we had some nasty stuff push though here last night.  No trees went down, but our grill blew across the yard.  This morning I checked the reading of our weather station.  Between 3:30-3:45 am, we had sustained winds in excess of 60 mph.  In the last 10 days, we’ve gotten almost 3″ of rain.

Today, while Carol and I were running errands in Willmar, we got a call from the bee guy.  He reported that 2 of the hives on the property had been destroyed due to the storm.  To make matters worse, he could not find the covers of the hives.  He suspected vandals.  When we got home (about an hour later), I went out to look for the hive lids.  I found parts of the hives more than 200 ft from where the hives were located.   That was some wicked winds.  Hopefully, it is early enough in the season to replace the hives.

Related posts:

1. A Day Alone. It Was Peaceful
2. Getting Ready For The Hops & Hogs